Harvest time is getting closer for St. Petersburg's Twin Bays Hop Farms, the first hydroponic hop farm in the Southeast. Years in the making, this hop-eration has secured preorders of its fresh, sustainable Florida hops from area breweries, completed its custom greenhouse structure, and scheduled the arrival of its 4,464 plants for early October. Three months later? The first harvest will take place.
Luckily for brewers near and far, the farm has an open-gate policy. Twin Bays founder and master grower Brenden Markopoulos wants them to check out the year-round bounty of local hops he sells by the pound. Five varieties — Cascade, Centennial, Columbus, Triple Pearl, Neomexicana and Hallertau — are available to start. However, they'll change based on market demand.
"We're gonna encourage the brewery guys to come in throughout the whole process. They can videotape the harvest and put that on their individual social media platforms," Markopoulos said. "We want it to be all-inclusive. We're not trying to hide it from anybody."
Read more about what's been up with Twin Bays since CL first reported on the farm over a year ago here.
